New Electronic Voting System
E lections are meant for everyone’s participation, but there are some people who have much difficulty with this task. In an effort to help disabled people in the voting process, the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering has teamed up with Indiana University, the Auburn University Center for Governmental Services and IBM.
In an article on Auburn University’s Web site, Juan Gilbert, the project director, said that this new voting system will help people vote even if they have trouble with their vision, hearing, or have problems reading. He said that it would allow more people to vote.
Gilbert had learned about the problems with the current electronic voting systems and felt that there could be some improvements made. His idea was to make the process a more natural experience for people with disabilities.
Ten Auburn graduate students along with some faculty members began developing what would be known as the Prime III, which allows voting by means of voice and touch screen technology. The AU Outreach office has granted a great deal of money to make this possible. The name Prime III stands for the three methods of voting that it provides which are, visual, touch, and speech.
Security was another issue with the old method that needed improvement. The new method uses randomly generated numbers every time the voter hears or sees their options. Also the results are printed out in a barcode so they are harder to tamper with.
Another security test is planned to take place soon by sending the program to hackers to try and infiltrate the system.
Through the end of 2007, there is an extensive evaluation going on at Auburn University as well as Uniontown, Al. To test this program participants are asked to choose between different types of food so that political views are not being revealed.
Gilbert said that they would be testing the system in Haley Center on October 19. He said that anyone interested, not matter if they are disabled or not, could test the system.
Auburn and Indiana will both be performing this security evaluation in order to determine the system’s tamperproof level. The Center for Governmental Services is planning on working with all research teams to develop the system if the testing goes well.
This is obviously a great step towards the equality of disabled people. Hopefully the people targeted for this new system will use it to its full potential and not let this great opportunity pass them by.
There are still a few negatives to the development of this system. Somewhere along the line someone might be able to hack into it a sway votes one way or another. It may also be more difficult for disabled people to become educated about the candidates. These negatives are greatly surpassed by the potential good, so hopefully this system will be in place before the next presidential election.
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